I Have a Lot of Respect for Representative King

Remember last Saturday Representative Steve King held a Healthcare House Call to encourage his colleagues to "Kill the Bill"? At the time, I didn't realize he was missing his son's wedding in order to stand up for what he believes. Here's to you Representative King, and best wishes to Mick and Stephanie.

When it came down to a choice between attending his son's wedding and staying in Washington to vote against health care reform Saturday, Steve King knew what he had to do.

He skipped the wedding.

Health care reform passed the House of Representatives anyway, 220-215, but King, Iowa 5th District congressman, said Monday he doesn't regret his decision.

The Republican had been battling HR3962, pushed by the Democratic majority in Congress, for months. He'd known about his son Mick's plans to wed Stephanie Bettin on Nov. 7 for months, as well. On Nov. 1, during a trip home to Kiron, Iowa, he told Mick, Steph and other family members the vote could fall on the wedding day and it might not work to do both.

"It was not a hard decision for me to decide then that I had to be in Washington, if that was the time the vote was coming up. But it was still hard, if you know what I mean," King said.

The reaction in the room?

"No one in this family asked me to reconsider. They all said, 'We know that you will do what you have to do,'" King said. "So I call it full-family support and full understanding. As I said, the best thing that I could give them would be to preserve the freedom that I was born into and be able to pass that along to any children that they will be blessed with."

See the full story here.